By Emily Bregel

Staff Writer



During the birth of her third child nine months ago, Signal Mountain resident Carmen Vanderhoof gently performed the belly dance moves she had been learning at Merrybellies Belly Dance Studios in Ringgold, Ga., making figure eights with her hips to encourage her baby along.



"It felt like things moved along more smoothly than in my other labors," she said of her third home birth.

This time around, she said she experienced none of the postpartum discomfort that had to remedied by a chiropractor after her previous deliveries. "I definitely felt like I recovered more quickly," she said. "I felt that maybe dance had helped me keep my elasticity a little better."



"Belly," or Oriental, dance is an ancient folk tradition, which functioned mainly as a celebratory or social dance in Middle Eastern cultures. But its benefits for pregnant women are as evident today as they were in pre-Biblical times, said Carolina Varga Dinicu, known as Morocco, a leading researcher in the field of the Middle Eastern and North African dance.



"If you're doing it correctly, there's nothing but good for you in this dance form," she said in an interview. "The abdominal movements strengthen the muscles necessary for childbirth and in our Western culture we pretty much don't use those muscles any more."



Two particular movements of the dance, the bellyroll and flutter, are in essence the same as the techniques termed pelvic rocking and deep breathing by French obstetrician Fernand Lamaze in the 1940s, Ms. Dinicu said.



"The movements are slightly different, but it's the same principles and the same muscle," she said.



Chattanooga area belly-dance studios are noting growth in participation, and area gyms, such as Jack Bell's Absolute FIT in Fort Oglethorpe and the city of Chattanooga's South Chattanooga Recreation Complex, have recently added belly-dancing courses to their schedules.



"Generally, just more people are interested in belly dancing," said Jillanna Babb-Cheshul of Merrybellies Belly Dance Studio. "And prenatal belly dance is definitely growing. It's just becoming such a big trend."



Ms. Babb-Cheshul teaches a class just for pregnant women, and other area instructors enroll expecting mothers in their regular classes.



Andrea Perkins, who opened Zanzibar Studios in Chattanooga in 2003, said she usually had at least one or two pregnant women enrolled in her regular belly dance classes but in a recent session she had 10.



"I don't know what's in the water," she said. "Maybe just more pregnant women are looking for alternative forms of exercise."



Particularly for women who have natural, home births without any anesthesia, belly dance can help alleviate the pain of childbearing, experts say.



"In a lot of villages in the Middle East they don't have painkillers so the movements themselves act as an anesthetic," Ms. Perkins said. "They just kind of loosen the back up and get the muscles relaxed."



The basic posture taught in belly dance can also help pregnant women with back pain, Ms. Babb-Cheshul said.



"If your posture is good, tailbone slightly tucked and your weight shifted a little bit toward your heels, then your hip joints kind of take in the impact of your walking and your gait doesn't jar up through the rest of your body," she said.



Doctors are also supportive of the ancient techniques, which require muscle isolations, for pregnant women.



"I would recommend it," said Dr. Cherise Felix, a third-year ob-gyn resident at Erlanger hospital. "New moms sometimes have a hard time isolating where to push and (belly dancing is) a safe way of building core strength. That's never a bad thing when you're pregnant."



Instructors say that it's always best to let your belly dance teacher know if you are pregnant, so that some exercises can be modified if needed.



"The joints of the pelvis, especially, and all through the body, loosen during pregnancy," Ms. Babb-Cheshul said. "You can very easily overstretch and cause yourself damage."



Chattanooga resident Andrea Staunch Green is in the fourth month of her first pregnancy and is taking a belly dance class at Zanzibar Studios. She plans to continue the lessons through the end of her pregnancy.



"Femininity is really celebrated in class, and I just look forward to the girl time and just focusing on myself," she said. "As long as my body is telling me I can do it, then I'll keep doing it."



E-mail Emily Bregel at ebregel@timesfreepress.com

BELLY POWER

* Basic position: Stand with feet hip-width apart and knees bent. Keep your chest raised and shoulders relaxed, with tailbone tucked slightly and back unarched. When doing any belly dance movement, keep the head level and the movement isolated.



* Crescent: Stand in basic position, and alternately lift one hip at a time by straightening your knee slightly on one side ? but be sure not to lock the knee.



* Small hip circles ("omies"): Standing in basic position, make four points with your hips. First, tuck the pelvis up, then lift the right hip. Release the pelvis to neutral and then lift the left hip. Eventually, smooth out the four points into one fluid circle.



* The Queen Sheeba: Draw a figure eight parallel to the floor with your hips. Start with your right hip oriented in the front right corner, then twist hip to back (try to keep torso stationary). Then slide hips diagonally to left front, and twist to the back. Do this motion while walking forward with a slightly wider than normal gait.



Source: Jillanna Babb-Cheshul, Merrybellies Belly Dance Studio